Nishla

Alana, pretty much all of my Chinese relatives are in the US, so we didn't have that reason to go. Also, it's quite a long trip from the east coast, and we didn't take very many vacations when I was growing up. I'm not sure my mom even went back until I was in high school or college! My friend's been inviting us to go every year since her parents moved there, but we never wanted to be away for the holidays. This year, though, everything sort of fell into place, since my parents were going to be there in Dec anyway.

Happy new year everyone! I was in Taiwan over the holidays, and have been documenting my trip over here. You guys have been making such incredible stuff, everything looks SO good! The first night we got back, there was no food in the fridge, so we had a cheese plate: From left to right: membrillo, manchego, rosemary marcona almonds from Trader Joe's, gorgonzola dolce, black olives, and goat cheese. Last night Keith made carbonara with spinach: Edited to fix link

Day 3 (cont.) So at this fish market, you can buy what you want, then send it across the street to have it cooked: The amount of food was a bit insane. Everything below went to the "kids" table...8 of us managed to consume most of this Shrimp Clams. These are sometimes called GuaZi (melon seeds) because they're so small. Sauteed clams with chinese celery. Yummy. Crabs! All full of roe. Fried rice and seaweed Snails of some sort, in a spicy sauce. I ate a ton of these. Cuttlefish, I think. Steamed and stir fried with chinese celery. Raw clam. SO good. Fried fish and shrimp balls Fish soup Steamed fish with ginger and scallions. This was incredible. This was definitely one of the more exciting meals we had. We had no idea what we'd be eating, and the dishes just kept coming out one after another. Really cool experience.

Day 3 On this day, we met up with my best friend and her extended family (a few aunts and uncles, significant others, etc.). There were 19 of us total, and we traveled around in a minibus for the day. First stop was the mountains. The original plan was to go hiking around Yang Ming mountain, but they wouldn't let the bus in. We went nearby to the hot springs, and hiked around there for while instead. Boy, do the hot springs smell like horribly rotten eggs. At first I thought I might die I think maybe my friend's boyfriend had too many beans for breakfast After hiking, we drove over to the JiLong (spelled KeeLung all over Taipei) fish market for lunch. The market had all sorts of seafood, including some stuff that was new to me: That lobster was running for his life... You can get these packages of fish roe everywhere in Taipei, even at some convenience stores! All sorts of dried squid and fish Anyone for heads and guts? More fish. So fresh, with the clearest eyes I've ever seen. Horseshoe crabs? Anyone? Creepy eels. Check out those teeth! More fish parts..."air bladder," supposedly Huge blue lobster Weird sea creatures. They looked like lobster tails with tiny bodies

Nakji, My best friend's parents have been there for about 5 years now. Originally they were only going to go for 3 years, but ended up staying longer. My dad's also thinking of staying longer than he intended. The traffic is crazier than I'm used to, but not too bad (and probably not worse than Vietnam). There are scooters EVERYWHERE, and they'll ride on the sidewalk when looking for parking. I only almost got run over once or twice though, since you learn to look out pretty quickly. I think if you live in the city you wouldn't need to drive, since the MRT is so convenient. The taxis are also pretty inexpensive. There is a bit of pollution, especially from all the scooters. I really noticed it while waiting on street corners, and there were about 40 of them idling nearby. It's not unusual to see people wearing masks around. In any case, the pollution bothered me way less than the smoking did in Europe. The one thing I would be concerned about is the summer--very hot and humid, apparently.

Nakji, all that food looks so good! I'm totally craving pho now...

Yimay, I do recall seeing something about the dates being called jujubes, but I'm not sure what that term means either! CFT, your uncle's comment about the bread is hilarious. It's actually comical to watch some of my Chinese relatives eat crusty bread. The faces they make followed by something like, "what sort of bread IS this?" or "this will break your teeth". Also, thanks for all the additional names for what I call kong xin cai. Does anyone know if it has a common name in English?

If you like the bakery items in Taiwan, you are going to love the bakery items in Hong Kong. From my experiences in the USA, or perhaps they just didn't do it very well, the Taiwanese bakery items are not up to par. I am always disappointed. The breads are too dry, to hard, or something. Hopefully what you had in Taipei is better than those from the Taiwanese bakeries in the States. ← I found the quality of the bakeries to vary wildly. We tried the curry pastries at another place, and the pastry was hard, with dry filling. Another place had cake that was too dry. Luckily, the bakery we went to most often was very good. It's about one block up Roosevelt Rd. from the GongGuan MRT station. I'll have some photos of it later. As a random aside, the MRT (subway) in Taipei is amazing. Most rides are less than US$1, it's clean, very new, and the longest we waited for a train was 6 minutes. There are also decent bathrooms in each station. Taipei is also pretty easy to navigate for non-Chinese speakers. Almost all road and MRT signs are in both Chinese and English, and a lot of restaurants have English or picture versions of menus. Even at the food carts, pointing works pretty well. I happen to speak Mandarin, but I feel like I could have done pretty well without it.

Dejah, we went to Taipei 101 later in the week, but didn't spend a lot of time there since it is extremely touristy. The mall is filled with high-end shops, and some of the restaurants didn't seem as interesting as what we could find elsewhere (and they were more expensive). I'm not sure you can get into the tower itself, other than the observation deck. ------------------- Day 2 On the second day, we started off by snacking on some fruit, pork jerky and curry beef pastries for breakfast. For lunch, we went to a place called DaSiXi near the GongGuan MRT station. There's a selection of self-serve items, as well as some things ordered from a short menu. It's also quite inexpensive, and a decent place to grab a quick meal. Store front (on Roosevelt Rd.) All the self-serve plates as you walk in. Most of our food. I forgot to take a picture until after we started eating From left to right, top to bottom: Scallion pancake, pig ear salad (really good), tiny fish and peppers (a bit dry), tofu strips and vermicelli salad, eggplant hiding behind the bowl, some type of root vegetable (a bit like marinated bamboo, very tasty), hot pepper sauce, and noodles with meat sauce and veggies. Pan fried pork and vegetable buns. These were very good...not too doughy. We also ordered hot and sour soup, which was much lighter than the versions served in the US. After lunch, we took the MRT north to the Palace Museum: By chance, we arrived just before and English language tour was departing. The museum is huge, and we only saw a portion of the displays. We'll have to go back to see the rest another time! For dinner, we went over to the ShiLin night market, the largest in Taipei. The market is separated into a food area and non-food area (clothes, shoes, jewelry, random stuff). Most of the food is in a large building, and I have to admit, it wasn't my favorite place. Partly because the space is enclosed, it smells of cooking fuel, and a million kinds of food mixed together. It's also pretty grimy looking. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good photos that night. Many of the stalls have grease and dirt splattered everywhere, but that didn't stop us from trying a few things. First, we tried choudofu (stinky tofu). My mom insists the fried version is the way to go, so that's what we got. It was surprisingly un-stinky, but pretty good. There are tons of fruit juice/bubble tea stands, so we tried one out. I got iced green tea, Keith had pearl milk tea, and my mom got bitter melon juice, which was actually really good. They blended white bitter melon with pineapple juice and honey. Very refreshing. After drinks, we went to another place to get oyster omelettes. Unfortunately, it came with a pool of peanut sauce on the side. Keith very carefully tried the portion that was un-tarnished with sauce. The pancake itself was great with really fresh-tasting oysters; the sauce, not so much (lukewarm and kind of slimy ). We also got huazhigeng (squid/cuttlefish stew), which was very good. Finally, we got an order of sticky rice with meat. My mom specifically asked if the rice had peanuts, and the woman running the stand said "no", so we ordered it. Then, it came smothered in the same gross peanut sauce that came with the oyster pancake. Ugh. I think I wouldn't mind going to a smaller night market, but the ShiLin experience was a bit much for me. Too crowded, too dirty, and let's just say it still wasn't agreeing with me for most of the night. Don't worry, though, the next day was our tour with my friend's family, and it was awesome

Yeah, I'm not sure about that. Maybe they use a roller for them. When I was watching, it looked mostly like thin noodles being pulled. ------------------------------ After lunch (which ended up being around 3:30pm), we were pretty tired from jet lag and walking around all day. On the way home, we stopped by a market near our apartment to pick up some veggies, as well as a bakery. The produce available in the city is mind-boggling. I could spend entire days in the markets drooling over the fruits and veggies. We got some asparagus, scallions, white bitter melon (which I had never seen before...milder than the green version), and kongxincai (hollow stem vegetable--I'm sure someone knows a better name!). The people at the market are very nice. The woman my mom goes to gives her free ginger and scallions every time. From the bakery: Flaky pastry with curry beef filling. Yum! Chocolate cake. Most of the cake in Taipei is of a sponge variety with cream instead of frosting. It's very tender and moist, and not too sweet. I this stuff. Oh yeah...more beef and pork jerky From top left to bottom right: Spicy beef jerky with fruit juice, dried pork with almond slivers and sesame (like a pork cracker!), two packages of dried sliced pork, regular beef jerky, super spicy beef jerky, dried tofu (one with black sesame flavor, one with garlic).

Day 1 (cont.) After our fruit snack, we headed over to the main train station area for lunch. There are several underground malls, and at the Station Front Mall there's a place for hand-pulled noodles. You can get thin or thick noodles, and they pull them to order. Keith got beef with tendon, I just got stewed beef. The version with tendon was far better. The thick noodles were slightly undercooked when my bowl arrived but were perfect after a few minutes in the hot broth. We also got some sides of garlic green beans, marinated cucumbers and seaweed salad. At the mall, we also picked up some mochi. These were a bit different than regular mochi--the dough was made from some kind of root vegetable instead of rice. The fillings were mostly fruit/yogurt flavors. The label on the box had some excellent Engrish too

Thanks for all the responses! I can't imagine being in Taiwan with a wheat allergy. Probably 90% of what we ate would be off limits. Keith has a peanut allergy (not the most severe kind), and we definitely had to be careful with some of our food choices since a number of sauces contain peanut powder. I was the designated taster of all things before he ate them Often, when we asked if something contained peanuts, they thought we were looking for something WITH peanuts.

Day 1 (cont.) Yup, we're still on Day 1, not even lunch yet! After walking around the market for a while, we went back home for a snack. We tried some of the new fruits we picked up at the market. Fresh dates. I'm not sure if these are the same variety of fruit we get dried here. They're crisp like an apple, but more juicy with a mild flavor. Very refreshing. Soft guava. Again, I don't know if these are a different variety of guava or just extra ripe regular fruit. They're extremely pungent...stunk up the apartment for a whole day! LianWu (wax apple?) and dragon fruit. The wax apple is also a crisp, juicy fruit, slightly sweet. ShiJia (custard apple). This is a really interesting fruit. It's got soft, creamy white pods inside, each with a black seed, which you spit out. The flavor is like a cross between pineapple, peach, passion fruit, but not quite We must have eaten 5 or 6 over the whole week, they were so good. Okay, I'm off to bed...I'll have more tomorrow. Hopefully this is interesting to someone other than myself

Day 1 (cont.) After breakfast we walked over to a nearby market (near the DingXi MRT station). The entrance didn't look like much, but once you walk it it goes on for at least half a mile of stands selling food, clothes, accessories, plants, chinese medicine, etc. Near the entrance All sorts of bamboo, ginger, fried things Fruits: guava, fresh dates, oranges Poultry, including black chicken PORK!!! Dried in various forms, fried and shredded. We got some of the thinly sliced dried pork. Sooooo good. Fish in the background, and a pile of frogs legs in the front. The fish was ridiculously fresh. Some of them were still moving More fruits: grapes, cherries, shijia (custard apple?), and HUGE persimmons. The variety of fruit was amazing. We bought a bunch to eat later This was just the tip of the iceberg for this market. I really can't describe how huge this place was. There were numerous stands selling cooked foods too--pork belly, chicken feet, roast duck, pickled veggies, soups, on and on. Many of them offered tastes as we walked by. ETA: spelling and photos

Day 1 We decided to start off our first day with a traditional Taiwan breakfast of doujiang (soy milk soup) and shaobing youtiao (sesame bread with fried dough). My mom brought Keith and I to a place called ShiJie DouJiang DaWang (literally, world doujiang king ). There's a seating area with a number of tables, each with a menu card. Salty DouJiang. I've never liked sweetened soy milk, so I always get the salty version of this soup. It comes with pieces of fried dough and scallions. ShaoBing YouTiao and chive pies. These were really good. Turnip pancake with egg, and xiaolongbao (soup dumplings). The turnip pancake was very good...lots of turnip with a nice crispy bottom. The dumplings were just okay. I only ordered them because we had planned on going to DinTaiFung that evening, but those plans got cancelled and I was dying to try some soup dumplings in Asia. Oh well. In case you're wondering, this great breakfast cost ~US$7 for three of us!

I've just arrived home from my first trip to Taiwan (in fact, my first trip to anywhere in Asia). With me were my husband, Keith, and my parents. My mom grew up in Taipei and was a great guide for our trip. Also, my best friend's parents are currently living Taipei, so she was there for the holidays too. We went touring with her family one day and ate like royalty The amount of food in Taipei is truly astounding. I don't think you can walk a single block without passing a food cart, restaurant or other food store. We got some great suggestions from eGullet, and our goal was to try as many things as possible. Some of the highlights were: Markets (fruits, veggies, fish, etc.) Dim sum Spicy hot pot Soup dumplings Street snacks We arrived late in the evening of Dec 24. My dad's actually teaching in Taipei this year, so we had a place to stay. He had some sandwiches from a bakery nearby, so we had midnight snack Chicken salad on the left, and egg salad with chopped ham on the right. The bread in Taiwan is usually soft buns...I don't think crusty european bread is popular there.

Wow, Andrew, I just read the report on you blog and I can't believe you finished most of that pasta yourself! That stuff is HOT!!!. The first time we went to Hell Night, five of us shared the plate. Definitely involved tears, gasping for breath, sweating, etc. Last time in October the ribs were also one of our favorites. We also got the "Wings of Ass Destruction", and they certainly did the job. The other dishes weren't ridiculously spicy, but I managed to eat a whole chunk of habenero that came with a pork dish. That led to some dizziness and choking, so of course everyone else decided they needed to try a bit too...

The tasting menu is now $135, and the wine pairings were $100. It may be possible to negotiate on the wine pairings, though. Perhaps you don't actually want 13 different wines Definitely not a place we can afford often, but our favorite high end restaurant in Boston. I'd rather pass up a couple mediocre nights out elsewhere to save up for this one! -Nishla

I'm reviving this thread from the dead with a really long post... My husband and I went to Clio last weekend, and it was fantastic. They recently got a new wine director, Ryan, and it seems like he's putting a lot of effort into offering wine pairings to go along with the tasting menu. (Previously, we'd had very good experiences ordering a combination of half bottles and glasses to go with the tasting menu, but the pairings took the meal to a new level.) Overall, the food seemed even more adventurous than on our previous visits. I thought there were a few really eye-opening dishes (for me, at least). Completely new combinations of flavors/textures/presentations that still tasted great. During dinner, we asked for a list of the courses/wines. They couldn't print it out that evening, but we received a very nice detailed menu in the mail today. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos since my camera is basically useless in low light. Soda inspired by nature One tangerine, one licorice. These were nice...the licorice reminded me a bit of root beer. They were accompanied by a caramel pumpkin oil bon bon, and a cheese popcorn cornet (powdered "popcorn", similar to the popcorn envelope at Minibar). The popcorn had a really weird chemical flavor--we were pretty surprised, because in four previous visits we had never tasted anything we considered objectionable. Tomato water martini Clio's traditional tasting menu opener, it comes with basil oil, caperberry and a tomato popsicle. Kanpachi (jackfish) sashimi, with miso vinaigrette, jalapeno and wasabi "caviar" NV Laurent Perrier Ultra Brut The fish, miso and jalapeno were great together. The "caviar", on the other hand, didn't really add anything other than a mild wasabi flavor in gel form. Overall, though, the dish was still good. Live Maine sea urchin 2004 Casa Marin Gewurztraminer Served in the shell with green apple wasabi foam, green apple sticks, pickled ginger and nori croquant. I loved the foam, which was intensely flavored and really complemented the sea urchin. The nori croquant was tasty, but a bit hard to eat with the tiny spoons. Yuzu gelee, dried olive, mint and olive oil ice cream 2005 Magito sauvignon blanc/viognier This was probably the most interesting dish of the night. We were instructed multiple times to eat all the components together, since each individual flavor was very intense. Of course, that meant we immediately tasted each item separately The yuzu is some powerful stuff, but somehow everything worked together. The dried olive had a great texture (almost crispy) and the olive oil ice cream helped to blend all the flavors on the tongue. Also, the wine was a great match for a tough dish. Toro tartar with sushi rice sorbet NV Gosset rose brut Another really interesting dish. The sushi rice sorbet was AMAZING. It had the flavor of perfect sushi rice, in a slightly sticky sorbet. This was one of my favorite single bites of the evening. The toro tartar came with ossetra caviar, citrus "rice" (frozen individual pulp pieces) and nori emulsion. YUM. Two-hour egg 2005 Casa Lapastolle chardonnay "Cuvee Alexandra" We had a similar dish on our last visit, and this was again one of our favorites. This time, the egg was accompanied by butternut squash, ham foam, black truffle and chantarelle. Puree of cardoon, bone marrow, foie gras cromesquis and nantucket bay scallops 2004 Mas Cal Demoura grenache blanc Yet another eye-opening dish. The richness of the bone marrow and foie gras went incredibly well with the slight bitterness of the cardoon puree, and the scallops were perfectly cooked. Thanks to eGullet, we actually tried cardoons for the first time recently, which made me appreciate this dish even more. Foie gras and beef tongue roulade 2001 Chateau la Rame, St Croix du Mont This came with heirloom apple puree, cranberry vin jus, and grains of paradise--I thought it was insanely good. Lots of ooohing and aaaaahing over this dish. The seasonings in the roulade were reminiscent of hot dog flavors, but better than I could ever imagine a hot dog to taste. We also received a shot glass of a green apple/ginger juice, which went very well with the dish. Sweet butter basted Maine lobster 2003 Walter Hansel pinot noir "South Slope Vineyard" The lobster came with carrots, spiced coconut and ginger vinaigrette. I would have never thought of pairing a pinot noir with lobster, but this was SO good. The wine brought out the earthiness of the carrots, and the sweetness of the lobster. Wow. Slow roasted saddle of New Zealand venison 2003 Paul Jaboulet St Joseph With red kuri squash, labne (like yogurt), dried olives and cocoa. Delicious. The cocoa and squash were so good with the meat. Cheese 1999 Hugel gewurztraminer Vendage Tardives The cheeses were a fresh goat with opal basil syrup and a sheep milk cheese with chestnut honey. Both quite nice. Croustillant of raspberry, yuzu and pine Pierre Ferrand pinot des Chaurentes This was a thin raspberry cylinder filled with a foam/cream of yuzu and a subtle pine flavor. Very nice. The wine also complemented the flavors. Soft chocolate cream 2003 Clos les Paulilles Banyuls Served with sugarbeet puree, macadamia ice cream, tangerine foam. I loved the beet with the chocolate, and the tangerine was a nice contrast. Overall, we both loved this meal, and I think they tried to give us both food and wine that we hadn't tried before. Based on our previous visits, they may have known that we are pretty adventurous diners. The wine director did a great job with the pairings, especially since some of the dishes were brand new to him, and some were certainly not obviously wine-friendly.

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Andy, that's really cool...congrats to your mom! Thanks to Donbert, we are now in posession of Laird's Bonded (and the Brizzard Apry) I made a Jack Rose the other night, and tonight we had it in an AJ cocktail: 1.5 oz applejack 1.5 oz grapefruit juice 0.5 oz grenadine The bonded applejack makes a HUGE difference. I tried the Apry in an English Rose: 1 oz gin (plymouth) .5 oz Apry .5 oz dry vermouth .25 oz grenadine .25 oz lemon juice This wasn't bad, but I'm not sure I'm a fan of Apry with gin. I feel like it needs something more assertive.

I forgot about this thread! Thanks for bringing it back. I went to an Amarone wine tasting dinner once, and I remember having steak with thyme-red wine sauce, sauteed mushrooms on toasts, and duck (confit maybe?). So, I think generally earthy flavors and rich meats were suggested. Sorry I can't remember more specifics. We've been having a lot of cocktails lately instead of wine, and recently our wine/food pairings have been very blah. Tonight, though, we had success! Penne with creamy tomato sauce and sausage, paired with the 2004 Falesco Vitiano from Umbria. The wine has sweet, dark berry flavors, with some toasty notes. It really brought out the flavors in the sausage, and had enough acidity to work with the tomato.

Holy crap. Did you eat all that yourself or did you have help? Looking at all that food makes my lunch seem very disappointing in comparison.

Here's my mapo tofu attempt. Thanks hzrt8w for the great pictorial. I didn't have any ground pork so this was just tofu, and I used a combination of chili bean sauce, black bean garlic sauce and chili garlic sauce. I also got some whole sichuan peppercorns, toasted them in a pan then ground them. My one problem is that there was a somewhat bitter aftertaste (maybe from the peppercorns?). Has anyone else encountered this? For greens, we sauteed amaranth shoots with garlic:

That's an impressive selection of drinks. We had a vieux carre for the first time at Pegu a few months back and it's now one of my favorites. Did you have a preference for on the rocks or up? Also, your dinner last night looked really, really good. I'm way too lazy to attempt fresh pasta on a weeknight.